I Promise I'll Take Care of You
by zitaos
Summary: From the moment he truly realizes how precious his sister and nieces are, Kei promises to always take care of them. But when Mayu is missing in the Minakami area, Kei fears that he has failed as a brother and uncle to keep that promise. R&R please!


~Kei's POV~

Right at this very moment, I don't feel very comfortable. Just looking at my sister's face is bad enough. She's in so much pain, but I don't know how to soothe her. What do I do? Stroke her brown side bangs? Hold her hand (Ehh, that's Misao-san's job)? Shout words of encouragement? How am I supposed to know? I'm only eleven and I know nothing about support when it comes to childbirth and whatnot.

Geez, I don't even wanna talk about this. Psh, I'd rather play with Yuu right now than be here. It's not gonna be any fun once my niece or nephew is delivered. _Dangit Onee-san, why did you even get married in the first place? And now PREGNANT? At the age of 20?_ Fuu~ Life is too complicated. _And you won't even tell me what its gender is_. It'd be nice if it were a guy...

I hear crying. I stand on my tip-toes and put on my glasses to see if it's a guy or a girl... Please be a boy, please be a boy... YEAAH, IT'S A G- what. The. Heck. It's... a girl. Nooooooooo, this is the worst day of my life. A NIECE. NIECE. What more could go wrong...

**Five minutes later...**

I don't know why Onee-san's still in pain. Sweat seems to be trickling down her non-wrinkly face and she's so... red. _Ew._ At least not as red as her baby. Oh wait, I hear a different baby crying now. Hold on, now I see a head. Redder than the other baby's head. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON? Another one? Oh wow, it's a girl.

Again? Kill me now. Not just one niece. TWO.

Every person in the room is celebrating. Every one but ME. You wanna know why? Really? You haven't figured out yet? Heh, so slow...

I have two nieces. NIECES. Out of male and female, why female? Huh, why FEMALE?

As I sulked around with my glasses tucked into my shirt so that I wouldn't be able to see anything properly, especially my new NIECES, Onee-san started to cry tears of joy as she held one of her girls in her arms while Misao-san, her husband aka a man with very handsome features, such as chocolate brown hair in a bowl-cut style and deep black eyes, held the other. They were such a happy and beautiful family as I saw the four of them snuggled up together. "Kei-chan, look. You're an uncle now!" exclaimed Onee-san as she flashed a wide smile at me. She put one of her twins in my arms and said, "This is your niece, Mayu. Isn't it a beautiful name?"

Sure. Beautiful name my BUTT. Why would Onee-san name her "coccoon"? Stupid name. When she told me the other baby's name was Mio, I kind of agreed with how pretty that name was, since it did mean beautiful anyway. They look like Onee-san, now that I think about it. Same lush brown eyes, same mud brown hair, same... OH MY GAWSH, THEY'RE LIKE CLONES OF ONEE-SAN.

Hmm, maybe it's not so bad to be an uncle after all... I mean, what could happen?

**Ten months later...**

I take those words back. All of them. You know how hard it is to be an uncle? Especially when you have to live with your sister and her family because your parents are dead, then you have to share a room with your nieces? I'd rather live on the streets than live in a house full of crying and screaming noises 24 days, 7 hours. Oops sorry, 24 hours, 7 days. GEEZ, can't even get things straight anymore.

Yuu won't come to our house because he feels like he bothers us. FUU~ I swear to the Kusabi that I would run away from the house any day and live with Yuu just to escape those annoying babies. Maybe I could pack today, ne? OH YES, PACKING DAY TODAY~ for me anyway.

_12:34 AM_

"Psst, I'm ready!" I whispered to Yuu who was waiting in a bush, wearing a blue T-shirt and denim shorts with his hair all neat and tidy (perfectionist much?). He rushed to me when he saw my hands full with all the stuff I thought belonged to me (which was a LOT...of things I DIDN'T need) and helped me carry some of it.

"We gotta hurry before they catch us escaping your house," Yuu told me as we were running from the house.

"You're pretty strong for a 9-year-old, Yuu. Thanks. For everything," I spat out, trying to catch my breath. A silence followed us as we continued to run down the path. I broke it by asking Yuu if his parents knew about it.

Yuu stopped, then he stayed quiet for a long time while fiddling with his T-shirt collar. "Uhh... Um. No."

I stood with him, shocked. My right fist started to roll into ball-form. "What? You mean, you haven't told them about this at all?"

"I did, but they said no. But I didn't want you to suffer in that house, so I insisted that I take you anyway," he replied in a calm tone.

_That boy... Gentle rain, eh? HA, you could be a little too gentle at times. Why am I mad at him? Who cares, I'm going back._

"Yuu, you really can be too nice sometimes, you know that?" I scowled, adjusted my glasses so that they would stop falling off and started heading back to my house. He just smiled and said, "Be safe, Kei-san."

Goodness, I'm so glad he let me go. Because I realized something... that leaving my family was not the right choice to make. I mean, how bad could my nieces really be? They're only babies... And Onee-san and Misao-san had given me so much because they knew I couldn't survive alone after our parents' death. I knew I just HAD to stay, to show my gratitude I had after all these years.

As I headed towards the door, a familiar figure greeted me by the sakura tree. To my surprise, it was Mayu, who was in a squatting position picking cherry blossoms.

_Oh my gosh, this is too cute. What was I thinking earlier? LOL what the heck, I made the right choice to turn back._

I rushed towards her and picked her up, then I gave a sigh of relief and gave her a raspberry kiss on her cheek. "Mayu, how'd you get outside? You're not supposed to be here alone! The Kusabi could have gotten you, you know that?" I scolded in an immature way (hey, you can't blame me for not hitting puberty yet. Why, have you? Yeah, I thought so). In response, she put a cherry blossom in my hair and kissed my nose, then squealed happily. Instead of groaning, I smiled.

Because I missed hearing her squeal. Even for a little while.

* * *

><p><em>"Come on, come on!"<em>

_"Wait, please! Mio, please don't leave me!"_

_"AHHHHH!"_

_"Mayu? ...Mayu? I'm sorry. I'm sorry!"_

Mio remembers everything by heart. Which caused her to keep the promise of taking care of Mayu from now on since she had a crippled leg due to the accident two years ago. Now they are seven, and I have just become an adult. Finally.

I remember how immature I was when they were born. At first, I wish I never became an uncle. Then ever since that moment I had with Mayu under the cherry blossom tree, I realized how precious they really were. Therefore, I never failed to be the best uncle I could ever be, such as playing with them and even cooking for them when my sister and my brother-in-law were away. I treated them as if they were my sisters and pleased Onee-san and Misao-san, thinking of them as a mother and father instead.

But now that Misao-san had disappeared, Onee-san moved away with Mio and Mayu from the Minakami area. She couldn't take me with her because she knew I was capable of staying with Yuu for a while (now was the right time to move to his place, aha). So being the good brother I was, I finally moved in with Yuu and was raised by his parents during my teenage years (those years were LEGIT). When I finally came of age, I thanked them for watching over me these past few years and bowed, then headed towards the college I was attending. I had to wait two more years for Yuu, my best friend and somewhat - never mind! - to come join me in my dorm.

As I was driving on the path to the college I was to study at for the next four years, I decided to make a surprise visit to Onee-san and Mio and Mayu, so I turned right on the path that led to my sister's house. When I parked the car, Mio ran up to me, shouting, "Uncle Kei!" and literally knocked me off my feet as she embraced me tightly. Mayu, on the other hand, started to limp towards me. I lifted both of my nieces up and carried them inside the house. They were giggling while I was greeting Onee-san for the first time in a few months. I put them down in their living room, where they resumed playing with their favorite dolls (oh yeah, those. I remember that one time when - haha sorry, getting carried away!). Then I sat in the cherry-themed kitchen with Onee-san to discuss our separate lives.

"How have you been, Onee-san?" I asked while I was sipping my green tea on the kitchen counter. I started to make mental notes about the kitchen and its...cherry blossom...ness? _Daang, why so obsessed with cherry blossoms? They're like, everywhere, yeah? Be a little more creative, okay? _

"A bit worried actually, Kei. I don't think I can live any longer without Misao-san." My sister took a deep breath. Her face seemed to have become more red nowadays. "He was my everything before he went missing in the Minakami area, and now I have no other reason to live except for the sake of my daughters," she replied in a very weary tone.

Silence lingered for quite a while until I breathed sharply, feeling a heavy burden in my chest. "Onee-san..."

Tears started welling up in my eyes for I had now realized how much pain any kind of love could give you.

She wiped a tear off my face and held my hand close to her chest. "Kei, if anything ever happens to me, whether I get sick or die... Please promise me that you will take good care of your nieces. Please. That's all I ask from you, Kei."

I gave her a warm hug and sighed with gratitude. As the two of us held each other in our arms, I thought to myself...

_Onee-san. Mayu. Mio. I have already promised you so long ago that I would take care of you._

"Hey Uncle Kei! Wanna play with me? I want a piggyback ride!" Mio shouted from the living room. _At least THAT had no cherry blossomness._

I chuckled, "Why not, hmm?" She clapped and started to run towards me, then climbed up my back.

"Wow, you've gotten heavier, Mio. I don't think I can carry you anymore. Help, someone get this elephant off my back! It's too much!" I started to pretend I was dying, then Mio exclaimed, "Hey!" and hit my back several times. That was one heck of an outrage from an offended seven-year-old.

Mio and Mayu are so sweet. So kind. So adorable. I mean, words can't describe my happiness of being their uncle. I will never let them out of my control.

For the sake of Onee-san. And for the sake of my two beautiful nieces.

* * *

><p><strong>Six years later<strong>

"Mio, I'll be back, okay? If you're hungry, there's some pot noodles in the refrigerator. Just heat them up for about three to five minutes on the stove!" I shouted as I headed out the door. Once I was outside, I looked up to the blue sky. Feeling so free with the wind... until dark clouds started to appear. The sky became gray, and before I knew it, I was getting dressed by a light drizzle. The drizzling seemed to get heavier and heavier...until it became rain. Solid rain.

_And I was wearing my favorite outfit too: an indigo V-neck, complemented with a brown vest-thingymajigger (bweeh vest, shirt, whatever... I don't excel in fashion vocabulary.), brown wristlets (haha, what the heck), a brown belt (brown's a nice color, geez), and some sexy blue jeans I found at a thrift store (thrift stores can give you the best things ever), and to top it off, brown/indigo-ish loafers (IDK the color or the shoes, they just look cool)._

Anyways... as I felt the raindrops fall one by one, my tears started to blend in with them...

_Onee-san... Although you're not sleeping in peace with Misao-san... Well you probably might not because guess what? I have failed as an uncle, a brother-in-law, and a brother to take care of Mayu properly. ASDFHJKKL I don't know what happened because I can't find her, and I knew I should have kept an eye on her and Mio while they were in the Minakami area. I'm so sorry for breaking my promise. So sorry. I know you can never forgive me for this, but please understand. Please. You won't hit me, right? Hehehe..._

As I was lost in my thoughts and drowning in my tears, the rain stopped pouring on me, yet it was still raining all around. I turned to my right side, only to find Mio holding a umbrella over my drenched self. "You don't wanna get sick, Uncle Kei, do you?" she chuckled.

For the first time this week, I actually smiled. Because I remembered that I still had Mio to take care of. Which meant I still haven't broke at least part of my promise.

"Come on, Uncle Kei. I wanted to eat the delicious pot noodles with the chef himself," Mio winked as she took my hand and kept the crimson umbrella over the two of us.

Somewhere in the distance, I heard Onee-san and Mayu whisper in unison.

_Please promise to take good care of Mio._

Guys, I've told you so many times already. You still don't trust me? Sad.

_Mio. I have already promised you so long ago that I would take care of you._

_**So don't worry, because I promise I'll take care of you.  
><strong>**For as long as we both live.**_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Hey you! Yeah yeah, I know it was pretty bad...but hey, it's my first. If you didn't like it, please tell me what I could do better for my next fanfic. I'm working on a story about Miku and her child with Kei, Mei. Hopefully, it won't be as bad as this one. Farewell. Oh, I edited this a little. Or a lot. Hehehe.**


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